What's Missing
by Sgt. Sporky
Summary: Pyrrha can't get herself to sleep- she's missing something. Rated T for language, etcetera.


_**A/N: Decided to do something different. It seems I can't sleep once again, so I'll write instead. This idea actually came to me while I was bored in my little corner of the world, pretending to write memos earlier, and I was going to take my double off period to do this, but now I'll write it in the hopes that it'll get me to sleep. As always, I implore you to review.**_

_**§SS§**_

Pyrrha Nikos could not, for the life of her, get to sleep. Sure, she'd fallen asleep last night, but now it was 0230 and she was awake- had been for an hour already. She tossed and turned, but found no position comfortable, could not situate herself.

Something was missing- absent. She knew what it was, and where, but she dared not go to get it. Pyrrha knew what was keeping her up. Jaune Arc was the one whose absence refused to allow her rest. She could hear his snoring on the other side of the room, knew just where he was, but she couldn't bring herself to go to him.

She didn't know why she was so nervous. Jaune had told her so, so often how beautiful she was, how skilled and how wonderful a person. He wasn't quite the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was handsome, kind and determined- she'd seen it all herself, and she liked what she saw.

_So why can't I make myself talk to him about it? I can stare at an ursa and say "not a problem," but as soon as I see a cute boy, I turn into a great big coward._

The warrior prodigy turned again and groaned to herself. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she murmured, leaking quiet tears onto the fabric of her pillow, curling up and gathering the blankets tight around her.

Jaune Arc, the only person who'd ever treated her like a person since she'd earned her fame. Plenty of people put her high up on a pedestal- and she hated them for it. But he was different. He did it too, to be sure. But he held her high for who she was instead of what she could do, and that meant the world to her. He didn't see the tournament fighter, the girl on cereal boxes endorsing sugary foods she'd never really eat. He just saw her.

And she couldn't help but love him for it. But he didn't know that, and she couldn't dig up the courage to tell him. She, with multiple tournament victories, corporate sponsorships and international fame, couldn't ask a boy out. _Isn't that just sad? It's because I know he doesn't think about those things. He doesn't care. Am I really so nervous to rely on my personality? Gods, I'm pathetic._

And then, she heard footsteps. The footsteps of a tired person, perhaps one just out of bed. She rolled over to face the source of the noise, and found the source of her discomfort stumbling blindly toward her, and halting beside her bed. "Pyrrha?"

She didn't respond, not certain what to say.

His voice came again. "Pyrrha? Come on, I know you're awake."

"You've found me out," she sighed in response.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Jaune," she muttered. _Lying through my teeth, because I'm not brave enough to tell the truth._

"... You're also full of it, aren't you?" Jaune asked. "Come on, talk to me."

"It's nothing, Jaune," she groaned. "Now go back to sleep."

In reply, the blond boy crawled into her bed and wrapped her up in his arms. "How about I stay right here until you talk?"

"You can stay as long as you please," she replied, turning to face him and planting her forehead in his chest. "It will get you nowhere."

He just squeezed. She was fine with this. _To be his friend is enough, for now. _But as ever, Jaune Arc and his total lack of thought filtration had to make it difficult.

"Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?"

Pyrrha smiled into his chest. _He thinks so highly of me. _"Often, and as if you think you're anything but."

"I'm really not that great," he murmured.

_... You know what? Fuck it. To Hell with my cowardice. I'm not much of a warrior if I can't muster this much courage. _She rolled the both of them, so she was on top, and stared him in the eyes in the dim light filtering in from the permanently lit hall, nose to nose. "Jaune Arc, you _are _great. Wonderful, even. I've told you why before. You see me for me, and it's one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given."

"Pyrrha?"

She paid his questioning tone no heed. "You're kind and brave, and you've never really given up. You're one of the most admirable people I have ever met, and... There's really no way to say this that isn't going to sound stupid. I'll just show you."

And like that, Pyrrha Nikos racked up her courage, and planted a firm-but-chaste kiss on Jaune Arc's lips, the both of them blushing madly. She pulled away just as quickly, looking away, but not fast enough to miss Jaune's eyes widening in the semi-darkness.

All the boy could do was cup her face when she could finally look at him again, and lean himself up to give her a kiss. It was an awkward kiss, the first beyond a peck on the lips for both of them, it would later be found out, but a kiss no less.

Pyrrha was overjoyed with this. Jaune really_ did_ want her!

Jaune, for his part, hadn't ever felt so good in his life.

After a third, deeper and sloppier kiss, resulting in some serious wet cheeks and colliding teeth, they finally closed their eyes, listening to the quiet, comforting noises of one another's breathing, and fell asleep, now that they'd gotten what they'd been missing for so long.


End file.
